‘We never stop fighting’: Reds’ 6-run 9th caps sweep, stellar trip

DENVER — If the Reds can fully dig out of the crater created by their rough month of May, they just might look back on this recent stretch as the one that saved their season.

Cincinnati’s offense flexed what it could do all week, especially during Wednesday’s 12-7 come-from-behind victory over the Rockies at Coors Field. That win, which required a six-run top of the ninth inning on a two-run home run by Spencer Steer and a grand slam by Jonathan India, gave the club its first series sweep at Colorado since July 27-29, 2012.

“It seems like as an offense, we kind of got our swagger back a little bit. I think everyone is going into the box with confidence and just a lot of belief in each other,” Steer said.

This is what has been achieved lately:

• The club completed a 5-1 road trip at the Cubs and Rockies with four-straight wins.

• During the series at Colorado, the Reds scored 29 runs, including 22 two-out runs.

“This whole series, all three games, it was really just a ‘next guy up’ mentality,” center fielder TJ Friedl said. “Runners in scoring position, two-out RBI’s, little things like that, that help win ballgames. We did really well with that this series.”

On Wednesday, the Reds battled back from deficits of 4-0 after one inning and 7-4 after the seventh. The game began in wobbly fashion for Reds starting pitcher Graham Ashcraft as four of his first five batters hit singles. A fifth hit, a two-out RBI single by Elehuris Montero, had the Reds in a quick 4-0 hole. Ashcraft was out of the game after a season-low 3 2/3 innings.

“I think some of us were tired today with the elevation, the road trip,” India said. “You could see it was wearing on us at the beginning of the game. We knew we weren’t down. We knew we were still in the game.”

The first comeback commenced when Jeimer Candelario slugged a two-out, two-run homer to right field in the third inning. Friedl made it a tie game at 4 with his own two-run homer to right-center field in the fifth inning.

Colorado reclaimed a lead on Elias Díaz’s solo homer off Nick Martinez and added two more runs in the seventh inning. The Reds stayed close with two runs in the eighth inning to make it a 7-6 game, including an RBI triple to right field by Jacob Hurtubise.

“That just shows how much heart we have,” India said. “We never stop fighting. We’re in every game. It was a tough start for us today but hey, we battled back. You could feel the momentum changing.”

In the top of the ninth inning against reliever Jalen Beeks, Friedl was hit by a pitch to lead off. The Rockies challenged because it appeared that the ball missed Friedl as he twisted out of the way. However, the challenge was not successful.

“It literally skinned my forearm,” Friedl said.

Friedl was on second base with two outs when Steer slugged an 0-1 pitch from Beeks for a two-run homer to left field with a Statcast-projected distance of 439 feet.

“I felt like I had a couple of at-bats earlier in the game that were ‘RBI spots’ as well and didn’t come through,” Steer said. “I was pretty pumped up to come through in that situation for the guys. I got it about as good as I could get a ball. I knew it was gone off the bat.”

Beeks continued to struggle and gave up two hits and a walk to load the bases for India. New reliever Angel Chivilli took over, but gave up India’s grand slam to left field that put the game away for the Reds.

India is 4-for-5 with the bases loaded this season, and has four grand slams for his career.

During their 9-18 month of May, the Reds offense sank to worst in the Major Leagues in team batting. During their 12-game stretch that began with a three-game home sweep of the Dodgers, they are batting .281 with 16 homers.

Unlike the big turnaround of 2023 — which started with a 7-15 record and included a 12-game win streak to get above .500 — the Reds didn’t have one big team meeting. Hitters started meeting daily instead of just once a series.

“You could tell we were pressing. Everybody was pressing,” India said. “When you lose in baseball, it piles up on you. It weighs on your heart, weighs on your mentality. We always knew how good we are. We just kept fighting.”